delight

I love the sound and feel of the wind this morning.  It feels like it's cleaning not only the air, but my spirit as well.  I have been home sick for days, but this is the first morning I feel well enough to peacefully sit and really enjoy the silence mixed with wind and the warmth and taste of my ginger tea.

I have been working on my website for the past month and considering what my art practice will look like and how it will re-emerge within this time of waiting for our big move to Maui, and then after we have settled.  It has been good work, but also filled with anxiety and mind and soul numbing hours on the computer.  What a relief to have finished it!

This morning I read Isaiah 2.  The words left me with these lovely reminders as the next season of creativity begins:

Trust and exalt the LORD alone.

Don't bow down to your gifts and the beauty of your art.  Delight first in the LORD, love people more.  Then create your art freely – do not grasp it too tightly.  Enjoy it, delight in it, explore it, make it... then share it and let it go.

Delight in the LORD, who is the beginning of creativity; who we image when we create.  Then art won't become like an idol, or an empty dusty trophy, or a puffed up unattainable idea, or a mere commodity.  Then it wont own you.  Then fresh wind will blow through it again.  Then you can really delight in the beautiful gift of your creativity.

Social Networking

I am feeling interested, yet precarious about social networking at the moment. I was encouraged on my “Linkedin” account to connect my blog to my website... helpful... good idea. It brings me here.

I want to share. I want people to see my work. I like being creative on the computer. I want to sell prints, share ideas, gain exposure, get feedback... I want to find ways to make a living as an artist.

I think it will take practice and discipline to know when to engage and when to step away. At some point I need to create something new and not rest on the laurels and marketing of past work.

Writing a blog is a way to engage in and perpetuate ideas, creativity and new work. It has also become another angle of marketing... which is fine. However, I do struggle at times with seeing my art as commodity and that has often cut off the joy of creating. I’m not against making money for my work, it still is a goal for me. My prayer is that I don’t forget vision and love in my work. I often ask myself whether I am creating out of love, or fear. When I am inordinately preoccupied with money it generally means I am operating out fear.

If any of you would like to give me feedback along the way, I ask that you would occasionally remind me hold on to that vision of operating out of love.

Open the doors and let in the fresh air!

So where have I been, you ask?

Working at odds and ends... temporary office jobs, freelance design, cleaning my studio, starting to paint, stopping painting... planning, getting distracted, sketching, working temporary office jobs... a sort of semi-productive, busy, slightly distracted cycle. I started looking for full time work, willing to put painting aside temporarily to pay off debt, although I know temporary stops can turn into years of not creating artwork.

I've been working hard on resumes, looking, strategizing, calculating... hitting the pavement and battling anxiety and discouragement. But in this season these efforts didn't open the doors I was trying to open.

Unexpected doors have recently opened; graceful swinging doors that have welcomed me in without having to pound them down or shove my foot in.

First was a call to work a couple of days a week at the Seaport Farmer's Market for Seafoam Lavender farms. I had to change my thinking from full time to part time work. I had resolved to "endure" any type of work environment to try and take the "long view", and here comes this offer of part time, low stress employment in a life giving (not to mention great smelling!) environment. In a sense I felt like I was surrendering the "security" of full time work, but in another sense I felt exactly like what I needed.

Around this time I was getting to know Daina, a fantastic artist at the Seaport Market who began encouraging me in my painting. Even though I had felt stuck, this encouragement started taking root. I began to clean out my studio so I could begin working, and the week it was completed this new friend contacted me with some amazing news... She had shown my work to two galleries and they both want to represent me! Thank you Daina... and thank you Galleries!!!

By the way, you can see out Daina's beautiful work at www.artbydaina.blogspot.com and The Witherstone Gallery at www.facebook.com/WitherstoneGallery ALSO, take a look at www.duffettfolkart.com Shelagh is another new artist friend from the market and galleries.

So here I am... with two days of work to bring in some extra money, a studio to work in, and two galleries to show in. I'm walking through the open doors baby!

Seaport Farmer's Market

Witherstone Gallery

Lunenburg

Trilogy Gallery

Mahone Bay

Silence and Solitude

This week I have been sinking into a sense of panic and rush to find employment or a solution to provide rest from our worsening financial burdens. While I value being active in this pursuit, it is easy to become frantic and tired and confused. What I desire is a calmer inner state of soul! I desire something like an underground river that refreshes a tree's roots regardless of what is going on around it. I understand that this nourishing river comes only from the source, who is God, but I am distracted with important concerns.

Today I was encouraged to find courage to seek familiarity with God and myself as I am, right now. I was encouraged to step into silence and solitude to allow myself to attend to my frayed inner state. It is easier to present to God and to myself how I think I should be or how the best version of myself would handle these situations. It is also easier keep busy and to strive, making impulsive solutions.

I believe it takes courage to honestly attend to our inner states. I believe it takes courage to attend to the presence, provision and love of God. It is hard to trust. It is easier to run headlong with eyes looking mainly at dangers or with eyes closed altogether.

Solitude and silence. Time to become reacquainted with God and myself. I believe this will plant me in the river that will sustain me today.

Claire

If "a day is like a thousand years", then even a minute must mean something.

Today I have been wondering how to find and keep focus as an artist. How do I honour my work along side the needs of our day to day living? How do I keep developing my skills while accepting the current need to find outside employment? Most of my time this month has been devoted to the later, and it is tempting to dwell on how little has been created. I sometimes fear that I need to chose one or the other, and I lament over all that I don't seem to be creating. Discouragement sets in easily lately.


I've been so tired from taxes, job hunting and ultimately fear over provisions that any efforts toward art making seems tertiary at best. But voices of encouragement have been breaking in. Thank you friends and family who have noticed what I seem to forget. That somehow work has squeezed it's way in. There have been finished pieces, and there have been creative ideas and visioning for this vocation, and even small moments where trust replaces fear. They have been small moments, but little miracles a friend encouraged me. As a thousand years is like a day, and a day like a thousand years to God, these moments mean more than I have given them credit. Trusting for a minute is still trusting.


Artwork and life realities cannot be divorced from each other. My prayer is that I can see the art that squeezes it's way in (be it in or out of the studio), no matter how small.

Claire